Creating a personal brand to succeed

It would not be incorrect to say that personal branding is as important as a corporate brand. In today’s day and age, entrepreneurs/professionals are becoming increasingly aware of this fact. But why is personal branding so important? It builds a person’s reputation and helps in establishing them as a business leader. It helps in creating people’s opinion when your name is mentioned. When it comes to generating business leads and getting new opportunities, your personal brand is your calling card.

While creating your personal brand few points must be kept in mind- what makes you unique in your field and what values you have that can set you apart from the competition, what sets you apart. The most important step is to create the heart and soul of your brand as it sets the foundation for the ensuing communications strategy across platforms. Be true to yourself. Define your expertise and your niche. Defining your expertise will help increasing your credibility resulting in increased business opportunities.

It is vital to be visible, be seen. How do we address this? This can be done through contributing opinion pieces, articles, media interactions as well as sharing your stories on social media platforms. Building your personal brand helps carve out a niche for you as a thought leader and expert and could lead to increased opportunities for yourself and your business.

Your personal brand speaks volumes for you. You must emphasise on the credibility why people should choose your services versus those of competitors. We, as PR experts, help entrepreneurs and professionals communicate their expertise and the value of their enterprise. Believe me when I say that people are keenly interested in knowing the insights, views and personal perspectives of big CEOs.

Building your personal brand gives you credibility in your field. Your brand showcases you as an expert who can be trusted in their particular niche. It can highlight you as the go-to expert in your expertise area thereby creating more business opportunities for you in the future. It also helps you promote your services and products without selling directly. For every business owner, it is most important to sell their product with the view to stay in business. As a PR professional, I have seen that CEOs who are willing to step in front of their business brands have been successful in building their personal brands.

Building personal brand helps entrepreneurs and professionals to differentiate themselves from others because it allows them to showcase their unique, individual voice. Obviously they do not want to sound like every other competitor in their field. So this is their opportunity to prove they are unique with more value to offer. By creating your brand, you tend to relate better with your clients as they start looking up to you and start developing more trust in you as a valued expert.

There are certain ways through which a personal brand can be developed. By creating relevant content. Usage of blogs, videos, podcasts and other avenues to create purposeful social media content. Make it relevant to your niche and to your clients.

Become a pro at hosting events for clients and for media to showcase your expertise and industry education in your field of expertise. Take media’s help in providing you coverage that can help you expand your brand and showcase your events to a larger audience. This will help in promoting your business and you as an expert.

Explore relevant speaking forums where you can share your knowledge by participating. It helps to showcase you as an expert in your field when you can offer timely and relevant talks.

Needless to say, to achieve all the above, services of a credible PR expert are required so go ahead and invest in that resource.

A passionate Public Relations and Communications professional with a progressive experience of over 18 years, Ritu is an expert in the realm of Travel, Hospitality and Aviation. Her forte lies in strategising communication plans basis the essence of a brand with a strong focus on media management aiming to create focused visibility and awareness.

Some of her professional milestones include, setting up of Aviation Industry Group for CII, facilitating launch of India’s first Premium Airline – Kingfisher Airlines and establishing the brand in media as the official spokesperson, facilitating launch of Luxury Retail Brands like Porsche Design, Bally and strategising and executing launch of the brand Roseate Hotels and Resorts.

Prior to founding Little-joy Communications, Ritu was Group Head - Corporate Communications with Bird Group/Amadeus India.